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ashleymontulli1970 's review for:
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
by Sam Quinones
I have a brother who was in a horrible mountain biking accident over 15 years ago. He was prescribed pain medication, of course, to heal from his injuries. I basically never saw that brother again. He became severely addicted to opiates and never recovered.
Suffice to say, I am interested in the opiate epidemic in our country. It is complicated, but it also isn't.
Sam Quinones takes us back those two decades when prescription pain medication was just beginning to grow, starting with a town called Portsmouth in Ohio. I was blown away by the history behind Purdue Pharmaceuticals and how they mobilized and pushed Oxy drugs. One article written by a doctor, taken slightly out of context, would become the platform for pushing pain medication prescriptions beyond the terminally ill. Watching this all unfold is jaw dropping.
Alternating chapters tell two stories. One is a small town in Mexico, where heroin originated, that was developing methods for bringing it into our country. The other is the explosion of prescription pain medication usage in small towns of America. What we end up with is a well-researched thorough account of why we have the epidemic we do.
I was surprised at some of the obviously shocking things that happened with the pharmaceutical industry but most fascinated by the small town on Mexico's west coast that started bringing heroin into our country. I felt understanding and sympathy toward the dealers bringing the drugs into our country and was most surprised to learn they were not villains in those early days.
The eventual collision of these two worlds is not surprising or unexpected. It is how we got here that is.
Suffice to say, I am interested in the opiate epidemic in our country. It is complicated, but it also isn't.
Sam Quinones takes us back those two decades when prescription pain medication was just beginning to grow, starting with a town called Portsmouth in Ohio. I was blown away by the history behind Purdue Pharmaceuticals and how they mobilized and pushed Oxy drugs. One article written by a doctor, taken slightly out of context, would become the platform for pushing pain medication prescriptions beyond the terminally ill. Watching this all unfold is jaw dropping.
Alternating chapters tell two stories. One is a small town in Mexico, where heroin originated, that was developing methods for bringing it into our country. The other is the explosion of prescription pain medication usage in small towns of America. What we end up with is a well-researched thorough account of why we have the epidemic we do.
I was surprised at some of the obviously shocking things that happened with the pharmaceutical industry but most fascinated by the small town on Mexico's west coast that started bringing heroin into our country. I felt understanding and sympathy toward the dealers bringing the drugs into our country and was most surprised to learn they were not villains in those early days.
The eventual collision of these two worlds is not surprising or unexpected. It is how we got here that is.